Structure of submarine boats



Dec. 20, 1960 UlCHlRO AsANo STRUCTURE OF SUBMARINE BOATS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 20, 1956 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS Dec. 20, 1960 UICHIRO ASANO STRUCTURE OF SUBMARINE BOATS Filed July 20, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 111: iii!) inuxil! ill lll I; "I. I

U/(H/EO fiSH/v O INVENTOR ATTORNEYS United States Patent O STRUCTURE OF SUBMARINE BOATS Uichiro Asano, Nishinari-ku, Osaka, Japan (243 Odaki, Odaki-machi, Isumi-gun, Chiba-ken, Japan) Filed July 20, 1956, Ser. No. 599,155

2 Claims. (Cl. 114-16) This invention relates to the construction of a submarine and especially to a structure of a submarine having a large displacement, which has not yet been practically accomplished.

In the field of building a huge submarine, the most difiicult problem encountered is how to construct the water pressure resistant hull.

In recent years, modern submarines have been required to dive very deep in accordance with the improvement of underwater propulsive performance.

Therefore, the thickness of a hull must be increased to prevent buckling or collapsing due to water pressure, even though its strength is sufiicient to resist the longitudinal bending. This results in increasing the ratio of the thickness to diameter.

When the problem of using the weight of materials effectively for the structure of a submarine is studied, it is economical or advantageous to use a relatively thinner plate for the water pressure resistant hull in conjunction with a short frame spacing. However, this system will be unadaptable, because as the diving depth increases, the cause of collapse of a hull changes from elastic failure to plastic buckling and hence the stress failure can not be avoided. Therefore, reduction in thickness of the hull plates becomes impossible and as the displacement of a submarine is increased, the diameter of the hull is necessarily increased and thus the thickness of plates must be increased for the above mentioned reason, while the increase of thickness results in the decrease of weldability and elasticity and moreover limits the use of bending rollers in the shipyard.

Because of these facts, heretofore it has been impossible to design or construct a large submarine such as one with 10,000 tons displacement.

On the other hand, a large submarine having a 10,000 tons displacement requires less propulsive power, has a more useful load and better stability, even though such a requirement may cause some deficiencies in maneuverability and defensive vulnerability.

One object of this invention is to provide such a large submarine having a displacement of over 10,000 tons.

A further object is to provide improved weight stability or sufiicient stability in the submerged condition, said sufficient stability being one among the many important requirements for a modern high speed submarine.

Another object is to enable the submarine to increase the useful cargo, armaments etc. by saving on the ballast weights.

Another object is to obtain more resistance of the ship against flooding by providing a relatively small number of watertight bulkheads compared with the usual hull construction.

Another object is to enable the form or shape of the hull to be more streamlined.

Another object is to obtain better conditions for the crews by easily preventing or insulating from heat or sounds of the machinery, poison gases, influence due to the variation of air pressures and furthermore the radioactive danger which may occur when a submarine is propelled by nuclear power.

According to this invention, there is provided such a huge submarine, characterized in that it includes a plurality of tubular or conical water pressure resistant hulls, for example two, three, four and more individual hulls, which are positioned in tiers and each of which is tightly connected to others with heavy plates to provide substantially suflicient strengths and rigidities against the external bending and torsional moments or shearing forces at sea, and said heavy plates are formed into the water pressure resistant compartments having a relatively small radius of curvature and used for the passages, pressure tanks, spaces for wire or pipe leads, fuel oil tanks etc., if required. Since the radius of curvature is relatively small, the strength of said compartments is sufficient to resist the water pressure applied thereon, even if moderate scantling members are used for said compartments, and the boundaries of each pressure compartment can be made in a simple form.

In order that this invention may be fully understood, it will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a midship section of the submarine structure embodying this invention taken along line 11 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal elevation in section.

Fig. 3 is a sectional plan view showing the upper tier of the tubular hulls.

Fig. 4 is a sectional plan showing the lower tier of the tubular hulls.

Referring to the figures, the structure according to the invention comprises four hulls, 5, 6, 7 and 8 arranged in two tiers, the greater length of each of the hulls being substantially cylindrical, and the ends being domed as at 10. Each of the adjacent pressure hulls is joined to the others by longitudinally extending heavy hull plates 11, there being two such hull plates between each two of the hulls, and the hull plates being curved in the same manner as the hulls themselves. Also the hulls are connected by transverse framing members 30. The longitudinally extending heavy hull plates 11 define a series of compartments 12, 13, 14 and 15 between each pair of hulls, as well as a central compartment 16. The compartment 16 will be watertight since it is completely enclosed by the hull plates 11, and consequently access is gained to this compartment through the hatches 17.

The lower tier of the pressure hulls 7 and 8 is used for installing such heavy implements as propulsive machinery, storage batteries, ammunitions etc. while the upper tier of pressure hulls 5 and 6 is used for the light weight compartments like the crews and oflicers quarters, aircraft hangars, control spaces etc.

One preferred arrangement of these loads is shown in Figs. 2-4, in which compartments 18 are the battery spaces, compartments 19 are the generator spaces, compartments 2.0 are the motor spaces, and compartment 21 is a machinery space for pumping machinery, elevator machinery and the like. Compartments 22 and 26 are pumping and machinery spaces, compartments 23 are torpedo rooms, compartments 24 are crews and oflicers quarters, and compartments 25 and 27 are control spaces. It will be understood, however, that this arrangement is merely illustrative and can be varied to suit different conditions.

This arrangement can improve the weight stability of the submarine and minimize the ballast weights. In general, the ballast weights are uneconomical for carrying useful loads while they are necessary for the ordinary type of submarine.

The connected water pressure resistant hulls are covered with the outer shells 28 which are formed into a suitable shape adapted for the propulsive efficiency, if required,

3 and the spaces 31 formed between said pressure resistant hulls and outer shell are used for the main ballast tanks, buoyancy tanks, fuel oil tanks, fuel ballast tanks, etc. which use is similar to the ordinary submarine.

While I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the novel submarine, it is to be understood that such is merely illustrative and not restrictive and that variations and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scopeof the invention.

1 claim:

1 A submarine comprising a plurality of substantially cylindrical water pressure resistant hulls of substantially the same length, a plurality of transverse framing members joining said cylindrical hulls, each hull being joined to two other hulls, and a plurality of heavy curved hull plates on said transverse framing members and connected between adjacent pairs of said hulls and enclosing at least one space between said hulls in watertight relation.

2. A submarine as claimed in claim 1 in which there are at least four of said cylindrical hulls arranged in tiers, there being two of said heavy hull plates between each two adjacent cylindrical hulls in the vertical and transverse directions, each two heavy hull plates enclosing a watertight space between them and the cylindrical hulls between which they extend, said cylindrical bulls and joining heavy hull plates forming a central space in the center of the tiers of hulls, and hatches in each of said hulls leading to said central space.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 926,007 Lake .et a1 June 22, 1909 1,277,943 Keall Sept. 3, 1918 1,429,941 Flamm Sept. 26, 1922 2,379,295 Gunning June 26, 1945 a, 4- nan-A. 

